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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2001_12_20 Board of Architectural Review Minutes 4 40(c.'N-11.1641.\ MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE r BOARD OF ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW OF THE TOWN OF MAMARONECK j1,, IVF i DECEMBER 20, 2001, IN THE SENIOR CENTER, TOWN CENTER 740 WEST BOSTON POST ROAD, Z 2002 MAMARONECK, NEW YORK Iri Present: Edward Z. Jacobson, Chairman Sue Ellen Commender Robert M. Immerman Anthony Spagnola Pamela T. Washington E. Robert Wassman Also Present: Ronald A. Carpaneto, Director of Building Judith Myers, Liaison CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order by Chairman Jacobson at 8:04 p.m. Mr. Jacobson said what I would like to do first, before we get into the approval of the Minutes, is to publicly commend this Board on the hard work that they did with regard to Dunkin Donuts. I hope you've all had a chance to go by there and see what a great success it is. In regard to the color scheme, the signage and the landscaping,this Board did very good work in helping Dunkin Donuts to achieve that level. • APPROVAL OF MINUTES Mr. Jacobson said we're going to go back to the Minutes of the June 21, 2001 meeting. We all received these in a separate package some time ago. He asked if there were any comments or revisions. Mr. Immerman said I have a comment which is more related to the Minutes of the next meeting, but it starts here. On page 3 under the Winged Foot section, the first paragraph that has three lines, it starts with, "After some discussion regarding the drawing that pertains to this matter, Mr. Gordon said that they're proposing this new building and will do some modification to this existing building". Well, the problem with Minutes like this is, "what's this?" Mr. Immerman said one has to be or try to get the speakers to be more precise about what they're talking about, because the secretary has a hard time understanding. You certainly, if you're reading this, that became really terrible in the next meeting. Mr. Jacobson said that's quite right, thank you. Mr. Wassman said on page 7, in the first paragraph of Dunkin Donuts it said, "they did not include the prospective in the drawings." It should have been the perspective. On page 8, it said "Ms. Washington asked if the sign is still orange and the logo still two colors, orange and cream". It's not orange and cream. It's orange and raspberry. Ms. Washington said, it's plum. Mr. Jacobson asked if there were any other corrections. • Ms. Commender said on page 3, regarding Solo Clean, somewhere in that meeting we told the applicant, why don't you just remove the zipper logo and the sign can say Solo Clean. Board of Architectural Review December 20, 2001 Page 2 • Ms. Washington said I think the Minutes should reflect that the applicant came in with the zipper logo and part of what the Board asked him to do was take the logo off. Mr. Jacobson said let's just think of how to phrase that, because then Marguerite could pick it up and add it. Sue Ellen, why don't you concoct some little sentence. A simple statement of fact would be appropriate. Ms. Commender said I think Pam and I were talking and I said why don't they just drop the logo and have the sign say Solo Clean Dry Cleaning. Mr. Jacobson asked if there were any additional comments on the June 21, 2001 Minutes. Ms. Commender said on page 8, 9 lines from the bottom, Mr. Elnaial said it's not going to be a roof, it's only going to be like a parapet. It should read, Mr. Elnaial said it's not going to be a roof, it's going to be like a parapet. Mr. Jacobson said so we drop the word "only" in that sentence. Ms. Commender said I also want the Minutes to reflect that we had quite a discussion with them about the fact that it's not just the building,but we talked to them about the parking lot, taking care of the fence and the landscaping. Mr. Jacobson said isn't that at the next meeting? Ms. Commender said no, we said it here and it kept coming up. • Mr. Jacobson made note for Marguerite that Mr. Spagnola was not present at the June 21, 2001 meeting. Upon a motion made by Mr. Immerman and seconded, the Amended Minutes of the June 21,2001 meeting were unanimously approved. Mr. Jacobson said we will now review July 19, 2001 Minutes. Mr. Jacobson said that Mr. Immerman presided. Mr. Jacobson asked if there were any comments or corrections to the July 19, 2001 Minutes. Ms. Commender said on page 1, it says, "Mr. Immerman informed the two applicants present this evening that there are only three Board members present". There were four Board members present. Mr. Immerman said that Mr. Spagnola came late. Ms. Commender said on page 14, four lines up from the bottom, "Ms. Commender said they also have on the property the enter and exit signs and the directional traffic signs that according to the codes can only be 6 sq. ft." Ms. Commender said I think it's supposed to be 3 ft. high, because the point was, that I'm 5.3 ft., and they were as tall as I was. Rather than 6 sq. ft., it should be 3 ft. tall. Ms. Commender said on page 15, five lines down, text should read "wall" sign instead of ball sign. Continuing on down into paragraph that starts with, "Mr. Spagnola said our first choice is that they have the rest of the building standards which the developers changed about everywhere. If", I think it should read, "If they're not willing to do that".... • Mr. Jacobson asked if there were any other corrections. If not, do I hear a motion to accept the Minutes as corrected. Board of Architectural Review December 20, 2001 Page 3 • On motion made by Ms. Commender and seconded, the Amended Minutes of the July 19, 2001 meeting were unanimously approved. Mr. Jacobson said next Minutes to discuss are August 16, 2001. He asked if there were any comments or corrections on the Minutes of August 16, 2001. Mr. Immerman said "Everything Hair", the fourth Mr. Jacobson said -- "the color is white letters on bronze anodized, instead of black." Next you see that Mr. Wassman was absent, but he made a motion at the bottom of the page. After some discussion, Mr. Immerman said it must have been me. Page 3, about the middle of the page, "He said to discuss this,would it be more accessible to have Mandeville have a cabinet", I don't know what that would mean. I can't image cabinet is the right word, but I don't what would be. Then two lines below that we again have Mr. Wassman, so it must have been me. After some discussion among Board members, Mr. Jacobson said I assume that accessible should be acceptable to have a cabinet underneath the fascia. Mr. Jacobson said let's amend this to say, more acceptable to have a panel that runs beneath the building fascia. He said Bob, you have some on the next page. Mr. Immerman said this is not a correction to the Minutes. It's a comment about what happened. If you look at the resolution it says, "A linear sign underneath", it's not underneath, it's adjacent. Mr. Jacobson said this is correct as stated here. Mr. Immerman said yes, but they didn't follow it. • Mr. Jacobson said "lettering" instead of"letting"under "a linear sign underneath, in the same lettering and color with the same height background". Ms. Commender said that occurred twice on that page. It also occurs in the 6th paragraph down from the top. Mr. Jacobson said do I hear a motion to accept the Minutes of August 16, 2001, as corrected? On a motion made by Ms. Commender, seconded by Mr. Immerman, the Amended Minutes of August 16, 2001 were unanimously approved. Mr. Jacobson said the next item on the agenda will not be heard: ACURA OF WESTCHESTER/Robert Lewis/White Plains Sign-2155 Palmer Avenue-Block 501 -Lot 1 - Sign (adjourned 8/16/01) I asked Marguerite to remove them from the agenda and to inform them not to come, because we haven't received any new graphic materials. Mr. Jacobson read the next application as follows: GJOKO SPA & SALON/Gjoko Shkreli - 176 Myrtle Boulevard - Block 133, Lot 642 - sign Mr. Jacobson asked if there is someone present to address the Board, that they give their name for the Minutes. • Peter Grenci from Neptune Signs appeared to address the Board. He said the presentation is somewhat of a composite. Board of Architectural Review December 20, 2001 Page 4 • Mr. Jacobson advised Mr. Grenci to hold the proposed sign so everyone can see it. Mr. Grenci said the colors aren't accurate on this. This is the actual sample of the sides of the returns of the letters. Ms. Washington asked, that gold color is the sample of the sides? Mr. Grenci said right, this color will be on the sides. Ms. Washington asked what color the existing sides are now. Mr. Grenci said that the sides now are a variation of that color. The grid that they're on is basically painted to match the building. Ms. Washington asked about the nail sign next door. Is the return on the nail sign painted to match the building. Mr. Grenci said I'm not familiar with that sign. Gjoko Shkreli addressed the Board. He said that the nail place, I think you have a picture there, everything matches. Mr. Jacobson said what strikes me is that the lettering now, each of the three separate signs, relates to the arch that it sits above. There's something very precise, very organized and logical about that. My concern is that when you add "Spa &" in between and you link "Gjoko" with "Salon" somehow it of goes off the • order of that arched facade. I regret to say it, because I do understand that you want to tell people that you're a "Spa" and a "Salon". Mr. Immerman said but if it ties it together and becomes one sign over the two arches, I don't see anything wrong with that. Mr. Shkreli said I think it blends in just as well. Mr. Spagnola asked, is "Nails" part of you're operation? Mr. Shkreli said no. Mr. Immerman asked Mr. Shkreli, are you planning to have the added text in a different color? Mr. Shkreli said yes, architecturally we want it to match and blend together with the gold tone in the shop. We don't want it to(actually just the color "Spa")be lost with the rest of the text. We want it pretty much like this, because the colors are warm inside the place at nighttime when you put the lights on. During the day this color won't even stand out. You won't see it at all. At nighttime when the lights are on, it will kind of uniform itself to blending in with what's there. As far as an architectural point of view looking at it, I think it will kind of give it a slight touch. There's not too many letter. They're only three letters. Ms. Commender suggested that Mr. Carpaneto could look up a code item, but I think the sign ordinance says that all the coloring has to be the same. Mr. Shkreli said they are, but the nail place has the outsides of the lettering slightly different. • Mr. Immerman said I'm not sure we approved it. There's a different color. He may have done it. I wouldn't think we would have approved it. Mr. Spagnola asked what color is the word "Spa", as proposed. • Board of Architectural Review December 20, 2001 Page 5 • Mr. Shkreli said it's proposed as gold. Mr. Spagnola asked what color is the side of the letter. Mr. Shkreli said that will also be gold in this case. This will be the actual appearance of side of the letter. Mr. Spagnola said, it's an all gold letter. Mr. Spagnola said, so it's all one color, except for the front face that illuminates. Basically it's all gold. Mr. Spagnola said the word "Salon" and the name of the store right now is a white letter and asked, what is the color of the side of each letter? Mr. Shkreli said the sides are a light mauve color. Mr. Carpaneto responded to Ms. Commender's earlier code question-- the number of colors used should be the minimum consistent with the design. Groups of related signs should express uniformity and create a sense of harmonious appearance. Mr. Spagnola asked if the distance between the name of the store and "Salon" is drawn to scale. He said the 6 ft. 10 in. between the existing two signs is accurate, correct? So this is going to fit exactly that way. Mr. Grenci said that drawing is accurate. The 6 ft. 10 in. represents the actual lettering, not the grid part on that drawing. • Mr. Spagnola said, so this is all in scale. Mr. Spagnola said "Spa" "&"just fits in there perfectly, so you don't have to move either of these two signs and there's not going to be any major gap between that and that. I think it should all be white. I don't think you should make that middle gold. Mr. Jacobson said I agree 100%. Mr. Spagnola said but to just do the middle is very strange. Mr. Jacobson asked if there was any comment about Mr. Spagnola's comments about it all being in the same white. Mr. Jacobson said I tend to share Mr. Spagnola's and Mr. Immerman's view about doing it all in one color. Ms. Commender said I personally think it would be better all in one color, too. Mr. Jacobson requested that a motion be made. Mr. Spagnola said my only other comment on the ampersand is, can you just make it not outlined but just a solid white? You can keep it smaller the way you have it if you want but just not make it so busy, because it's going to become so important looking. Mr. Spagnola said if it's just white as a solid form the way the others letters are it will be fine, but not as decorative as it is right now. Mr. Shkreli said that will be no problem. Mr. Jacobson asked Mr. Spagnola to make a motion. • On a motion made by Mr. Spagnola, seconded by Ms. Commender, the following resolution was unanimously ADOPTED: Board of Architectural Review December 20, 2001 Page 6 • WHEREAS, Gjoko Inc. Salon/Gjoko Shkreli, has submitted an application to the Building Inspector, together with plans to add "Spa &" to the existing sign; and WHEREAS, the Building Inspector has declined to issue such permit on the grounds that the review by the Board of Architectural Review is required; and WHEREAS, Gjoko Inc. Salon/Gjoko Shkreli submitted an application for approval to the Board; and WHEREAS, this Board has examined the plans, inspected the site, reviewed the application and has heard all persons interested in this application; and NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the subject application be and the same is GRANTED, subject to the following conditions: 1. The word Spa and the ampersand be white to match the existing letters on the building, the sides of the word Spa and the ampersand would also match the existing letters of the building 2. The ampersand not be outline but a solid face of white the way the existing letters are and would match the new letters, Spa. Mr. Jacobson said read the next item: • STOP & SHOP/Agnoli Sign Company, Inc. - 1326 Boston Post Road - Block 410, Lot 463 - sign Don Agnoli from Agnoli Sign Company, representing Stop& Shop, appeared to address the Board. Mr. Agnoli passed out some photos. Mr. Agnoli said what we're proposing to do here is add a sign on the Boston Post Road to be seen from the road there. The sign would be 1 ft. 6 in. high, or 18 inches high, by a little under 18 ft. long. It will be the same color as the sign that's on the front of the building facing the parking lot, the same colors, style and everything as on the front. Ms. Commender said can you tell us the dimensions of the sign. Mr. Agnoli said the sign will be 30 in. high by about 28 ft. long. Mr. Immerman asked if there is something strange about your image here that the centers of the two "O's" look different? Mr. Agnoli said no, when you do it on the computer graphics the "O's" disappear and you have to fill the colors in. Mr. Immerman asked if the "O's" are going to be like the other letters. Mr. Agnoli said yes. He presented another sketch. Mr. Jacobson asked if these letters have solid sides. • Mr. Agnoli said yes. They're internally illuminated, the sides are opaque and there's no white. Mr. Jacobson asked if there were any comments. Board of Architectural Review December 20, 2001 Page 7 iMs. Commender asked Mr. Carpaneto if there is some limitation as to the length of the sign on the front and side. Mr. Carpaneto said as long as you don't exceed the total length with the sign. Ms. Commender asked what the total length would be. Mr. Carpaneto said 100 sq. ft. by 50 ft. in length. Mr. Jacobson asked if there were any other comments. Ms. Commender said I have a comment. Stop & Shop came before us over the summer, they wanted to redo the parking lot and they were going to do a number of things including take down trees, put up trees and you didn't follow through for whatever reason to redo the parking lot. However, there are a number of tree pits which no longer have trees in them. I was hoping you could make putting up the sign contingent on having some of those trees replaced. Mr. Agnoli said he will try to convey this request to Stop & Shop. Mr. Jacobson said that this gentleman represents the sign company. He said there must be a more formal way to direct this to Stop & Shop. After further discussion regarding landscaping, Mr. Jacobson asked Mr. Carpaneto if there was some way we can communicate directly with Stop & Shop. • Mr. Carpaneto said absolutely. Mr. Jacobson said please take care of that Ron. Ms. Commender said so there's three (3)trees that should go in tree pits directly in front of Stop&Shop and I think there is one (1) tree on the Boston Post Road side. Mr. Carpaneto said I'll call the owner. Mr. Jacobson asked for a motion. On a motion made by Ms. Commender, seconded by Ms. Immerman, the following resolution was unanimously ADOPTED: WHEREAS, Agnoli Sign Co.has submitted an application to the Building Inspector,together with plans for Stop & Shop to install a set of 18" channel letters on the side of the building; and WHEREAS, the Building Inspector has declined to issue such permit on the grounds that the review by the Board of Architectural Review is required; and WHEREAS, Agnoli Sign Co. submitted an application for approval to the Board; and WHEREAS, this Board has examined the plans, inspected the site, reviewed the application and has heard all persons interested in this application; and • NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the subject application be and the same is GRANTED, subject to the following conditions: • Board of Architectural Review December 20, 2001 Page 8 • 1. Accept the sign as submitted. OTHER BUSINESS Mr. Jacobson asked if there was any new business. Mr. Carpaneto asked a question of Ms. Commender. He asked did you say that Cosi put up something that was not approved? Ms. Commender said yes. After some discussion, Ms. Commender said the sign that they put up says breakfast, lunch, dinner and something else. It says it in one line. Mr. Immerman said the something else is dessert, in one line. Ms. Commender said what we approved was that the lettering was going to be the same typeface as Cosi, and it's clearly not. Mr. Immerman said and it was going to be under it. We said that in the Minutes already. Mr. Spagnola said we said it was going to be under it, and now it's along side of it? Mr. Immerman said yes. • Mr. Carpaneto said Cosi is in the big box. Mr. Immerman said yes. Ms. Washington said I have a another issue. The Dunkin Donuts' sign on their mansard roof is not level to the street. It rises up from one side to the other, or else the mansard facade is crooked. Mr. Jacobson said, are you suggesting that it's just not level with the roof line? Ms. Washington said there is something not right about the Boston Post Road facade. Ms. Commender said in addition,Dunkin Donuts has these illuminated signs in the windows that were not approved. Don't they need a permit? Mr. Immerman said it says Grand Opening, and there are flags. Mr. Carpaneto said they never asked for that. Mr. Spagnola asked if the signs in the window that are illuminated are considered part of the square footage of signage. Mr. Carpaneto said no, but is limited in square footage to a percentage of the window area. Mr. Spagnola said if had approved any of those signs. Those were not part of the application. • Mr. Spagnola said we should look at them. It's one thing if it's a changing kind of signage or for special promotion, but if it's a permanent illuminated thing, there's a question whether we should review it. Mr. Jacobson said we should make a determination as to whether or not they need to come in. Ms. Commender said it's already damaged. • Board of Architectural Review December 20, 2001 Page 9 • Mr. Carpaneto said Pier I put up the fence. Ms. Commender said I just have one more piece of old business. Ms. Commender said the Solo Clean Dry Cleaners, Ron, have all kinds of paper in the window including a sign that has that logo on it that says Solo Clean Dry Cleaners. I was wondering if you could pass by and if you could do something about that. Also, the directory sign there has one or more pieces that don't seem to comply with the Sign Ordinance. Mr. Carpaneto asked if she meant the sign coming in, to which Ms. Commender said yes. Ms. Commender said it has a logo on it and the way we set this up is that all the lettering is supposed to be similar. There are different typefaces in that directory sign. Mr. Jacobson said that he and Mr. Spagnola talked about the possible need for control of new residential construction. There are a number of examples of new houses and additions to houses which are not sympathetic with their neighborhoods. Mr. Spagnola said he mentioned our discussion to Ms. Myers and she indicated that there has been discussions on the Board about how to, and should we, etc. Mr. Jacobson said after Mr. Spagnola and I discussed it, I thought that this Board ought to get together, at a separate meeting on the subject, and discuss it to see what the Board's general feeling was about this responsibility, what the limits ought to be with respect to single family residential projects. He said that Mr. Spagnola offered to host the meeting at his house. • Mr. Immerman asked, do we want to do that before we hear what the Town Board is thinking? Mr. Jacobson said my personal feeling is yes, definitely. I believe it would be helpful for the Board of Trustees to know of this Board's thinking on this issue. Ms. Washington said I think we have to send a package to the Town Board of what we think the parameters should be, so they could respond to them. Ms. Meyers said I did bring it up to the Town Board. We did have a meeting with Mr. Carpaneto and it was just a very preliminary discussion of developing a floor area ratio. Right now our floor area ratio is one. So the idea would be to reduce that and base it on the different zoning areas. This would just be for residential areas. Ms. Myers said that Frank Fish, who is our consultant on this kind of planning,and Mr. Carpaneto, are going to come before the Town Board on January 23, 2002, to discuss this further. One of the key things that they're looking at is that they don't want to make it so that we could adopt all sorts of new FAR's and then find that 90% of our existing homes don't conform. Then you sort of have a fill-in rule there. What they're trying to do is figure out, and you can say this better than I, what the majority of our existing homes currently are and try to work within that. I can say definitely that everyone on the Town Board is very interested in finding some solution,so that we don't start seeing expansion and tear down and have these huge mammoth things going up that are simply out of character. It's not even the out of character as much as just taking up so much space on a piece of property and in turn throwing the neighborhood character off. Ms. Meyers said when I bought up to the Town Board last night, the idea that Mr. Spagnola had come to me and Ed that you guys would like to get involved, the first reaction was yes, but this is just residential. • Right now, the BAR is not empowered to work with residential. Ms. Myers said now there are two things that happened. One would be if indeed we did want to look at a commercial FAR as well. So far it's mostly just residential that people all over the country are getting worried about. I don't know whether it makes sense ...inaudible. Board of Architectural Review December 20, 2001 Page 10 • Mr. Carpaneto said for our commercial, I think we're pretty much already there. There's really not much more commercial area that could be developed. I think with and FAR of one, it managed to work pretty well with the site according to Frank Fish. What I've been fording is that I took a half dozen homes in each zone district, and did some calculations, some square footages and the number of stories and right now all the houses will conform with the FAR and can still be added on a little bit, so you're not restricting anybody to a point. I'm sure you're going to have a couple of cases where the homes are going to require variances to be added on under the FAR. Mr. Carpaneto said an FAR is a number that's put on a particular lot size. It's usually a fraction. What that does is, it goes by the lot size. In our sixth zone, you can have a 6,000 square foot lot, it could be theoretically the smallest lot and then you could have a 15,000 square foot lot. If the FAR is for instance .50 on a 6,000 sq. ft. lot, you can build a 3,000 sq. ft. house, but that's also 2 stories. What it does is cuts it down, because on a 6,000 sq. ft. lot you can probably build a 7,000 sq. ft. house, at 35%. Mr. Carpaneto said it's 35% coverage in all our zones, no matter what the size of the lot is. Mr. Jacobson said let me just interrupt for a second. If this is the kind of thing that's being talked about, I don't see any kind of role for this Board. If this thing is handled mathematically, then it really doesn't involve us. Mr. Carpaneto said it has nothing to do with the look of the house. Mr. Jacobson said exactly. My only point was if this Board is concerned about what things are looking like, then that is in fact what we would want to talk about. • Ms. Myers said I personally think it's something that should definitely come from you guys to our Board. Mr. Jacobson interrupted, saying we don't want to have a full discussion of this tonight. He asked if the group would be interested in meeting in January. The Board replied yes. NEXT MEETING The next meeting of the BAR will be held on January 17, 2002. ADJOURNMENT On a motion made by Mr. Immerman, seconded by Ms. Commender, the meeting was adjourned at 9:15 p.m. )/hari /�' Marguerite Ror A, Recording Secretary • OHO j 2 a' Q1 ° Town of Mamaroneck OCounty of Westchester Town Offices: 740 West Boston Post Road, Mamaroneck, NY 10543-3319 914. 381-7830 Office of the Board of Architectural Review December 13, 2001 NOTICE OF MEETING A meeting of the Board of Architectural Review of the Town of Mamaroneck will be held on DECEMBER 20, 2001 at 8:00 p.m. in the SENIOR CENTER, 740 West Boston Post Road, Mamaroneck, New York. The agenda will include the following matters: AGENDA 1. APPROVAL OF MINUTES 2. ACURA OF WESTCHESTER/Robert Lewis/White Plains Sign - 2155 Palmer Avenue - Block 501 - Lot 1 - sign (adjourned 8/16/01) 3. GJOKO SPA & SALON/Gjoko Shkreli - 176 Myrtle Boulevard - Block 133, Lot 642 - sign 4. STOP & SHOP/Agnoli Sign Company, Inc. - 1326 Boston Post Road - Block 410, Lot 463 - sign )21 C Marguerite RRecording Secretary C